


Psychopomps

by LaReineDuLune



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Immortal Husbands, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Timey-Wimey, wibbly-wobbly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26352832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaReineDuLune/pseuds/LaReineDuLune
Summary: Joe and Nicky escape to their Maltese paradise, but not all is as it should be or as it seems.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 13
Kudos: 98





	Psychopomps

Psychopomps  
©2020 La Reine Du Lune  
  
“What’s that look for, _habibi_?” Joe inquired, snaking his arm around his husband’s waist and drawing him in for a soft, indulgent kiss that went on a little longer than was probably necessary, but Nicky insisted and Joe smiled against his lips.

“Nothing, I just feel like I’ve forgotten something. You know the feeling?” Nicky replied, turning in Joe’s arms and wrapping his around his shoulders to encourage another kiss off him, which he happily obliged.

“The apricots! It’s just come to me, we forgot to get them at the market.”

“Of course, that must be it. My apologies, I neglected to write them on the list.”

Joe waved him off and kissed him again. “Not to worry, it’s summer, there’ll be apricots for weeks. We’ll get some next time.” Nicky smiled and nodded, looking out towards the shimmering turquoise of the sea through the open door off their kitchen. Their house was situated on a private beach on the coast of Malta. It was their escape, their paradise. Nicky frowned, the feeling hadn’t gone away. “My love?”

“Joe? I think…”

“Yes?”

“I think I need you. I need to feel you. Will you take me to bed? Make love to me? You suddenly feel quite ephemeral and I need us to connect again. I’m sorry, I’m just off today, but I quite suddenly and desperately need you.”

“ _Hayati_ , there needn’t ever be apologies between us. We have been together forever. Being invited to make love to you is an honour, it always has been. My love, you don’t seem yourself. Is there something more wrong?”

Nicky shook his head and shuddered, prompting Joe to kiss him again, this time hot and hungry as he guided them towards their bedroom. Afterwards they lay entwined together, Joe dozing as he held Nicky in his arms. Nicky buried his nose in is husband’s beard and savoured the too quickly fading ache and phantom feeling of Joe still inside him. He wrapped his arms around Joe and held on tighter than he ever had before.

The next day they took a long stroll along the shore hand in hand with the Maltese sun beating down upon them. Their shirts were off and slung around their necks while a cool breeze swirled all around them. They’d left their shoes at home and their skin was covered in a sheen of sweat. Joe’s colour was as rich as gold and Nicky wanted to put his tongue on every inch of him. In all likelihood they’d be naked and in the ocean before too long, laughing and swimming together, teasing and splashing each other.

He was broken out of his thoughts by Joe pulling him aside. The pair watched as a giant mare came galloping up the beach at a top speed with no rider in sight. They felt the sand rumble beneath their feet as it raced passed and kept going. Joe frowned and worried his bottom lip. “Déjà vu,” he muttered.

“Hmm?” Nicky inquired as he watched the dark, coffee coloured animal disappear on the horizon, gone as fast as it had come.

“I just had a strong sense of déjà vu. Did something similar happen another time here?”

“It’s possible. It’s been so many years that it all just blends together in my mind sometimes.”

“I wonder what it means?”

Nicky kissed his sun drenched forehead and licked Joe’s sweat from his lips. “I know I’m usually one to speak of symbols and destiny, my love, but I can think of nothing. It was a beautiful horse though. Perhaps we should go further inland one day and find a stable who’ll rent us horses for the day and go for a ride?”

Joe brightened. “Yes, I think I’d like that. Excellent idea. Ever brilliant, my Nicolò.”

Later that night at dinner Nicky was distracted. His odd feeling from the day before had returned. They sat outside at their favourite restaurant with all the tourists milling around them. He took small bites of his fish, but he’d lost his appetite.

“Something wrong with the fish?” Joe asked

“No, it’s good,” he replied. “But… but it’s not _right_.”

Joe took a forkful from Nicky’s plate and tasted it. “It’s delicious.”

“I know. That’s what’s so strange. Don’t mind me.”

“My darling, that is virtually all I do, and it makes me unspeakable happy. You make me so happy.”

Nicky reached across the table and threaded their fingers together. “You make me happy too, Yusuf. I love you. I love you so much I feel like my body isn’t able to contain my joy for being yours and having you as mine.”

“All these long years together and your kiss still thrills me, your body calls to mine, your soul is… my love, my angel, it feels sometimes like…”

Nicky nodded emphatically, understanding instantly. “We are two souls who’ve woven themselves together… half of you is in me, half of me lives in you. Soul mates, symbiotically attached forever, the one on the opposite side becomes the other side of the heart that beats. My blood is yours, my body, yours.”

“It is the same for me. I Iove you too, Nicolò. We should stay here forever.”

Nicky laughed, his eyes dancing. “I agree!”

The moment passed and they ate the rest of their dinner in relative silence, trading doe-eyed looks and smiles with each other. Nicky’s next bite of fish tasted phenomenal.

A week or so later they found themselves walking back from another trip to the market, with apricots a plenty in their bags. The reached the end of the street and were hit with the scent of freshly baking bread. Thinking it the perfect accompaniment to the recipe they were making later and the wine they’d picked, they stopped in to buy a loaf. They walked out with a box of assorted pastries too.

After dinner had been consumed, they‘d made their way outside to their porch with the last of the wine in their glasses and the box of pastries. They sat together on their settee, shoulders pressed together and opened the box. They first shared a cannoli, sucking the cream off each others’ tongues and laughing throughout and between kisses. Nicky cut a piece of baklava in half and they fed it to each other. It was divine – hazelnuts, not walnuts, rose water, and under the honey there was a hint of something…

“Pomegranate,” Nicky whispered. His eyes met Joe’s and something, something powerful pulled at their minds, like a muffled, hidden scream coming racing at him from the ether.

“Andy…” Joe broke, drawing in a ragged breath. “Nicky… we forgot Andy.” Joe gripped Nicky’s hand, suddenly needing in anchor them together.

“I wondered when you two would wake up,” came her voice as she walked up from the beach. She was young again, like she had been when they’d first encountered Nile, and dressed very much the same. She walked up the steps of their porch and sat down opposite them in one of their chairs. She peered into the pastry box and huffed. “You assholes, you didn’t save me any baklava!”

“Andromache. My god, Andromache,” Nicky gasped.

“In the flesh! Well, actually not, just in spirit.”

“What is happening? How did we forget about you?”

“Well, I have been dead for a couple thousand years, you guys only croaked, like a century ago. But what can I say? I got bored. Time is relative of course, but I missed you. I would’ve thought the horse was a good enough sign to trigger your memories, but nope had to be a little more heavy handed, hence the baklava. That you didn’t save me any of.”

“We don’t understand,” Joe spoke.

Andy smiled indulgently at them, her eyes full of love. “If you were to choose the manner of your afterlife, wouldn’t this be it?” She gestured around them, to their beach in Malta, their perfect home, the calm, unchanging bustle of an ancient city and its people, the ocean and the summer skies. “You’re dead, guys, and this is your own personal Heaven. Together forever, like you always said you would be.”

Though initially they thought it ridiculous, it dawned upon them quickly that Andy’s words were the truth. Their memories returned to them then, the lives they’d left behind and the manner of their deaths after nearly five thousand years together. They hadn’t died of old age, but they had gone together. Slipping into this new world of theirs had been seamless, so much so that all knowledge but the present had evaporated from their minds.

“I saw my mother and my sisters,” Andy continued “They’d been waiting for me. I got to ride my first horse again. I was wild and free. I forgot too, for a while, then Quyhn arrived and her soul called to mine. Time is meaningless now, to us for who time was everything for so long. We can rest and we will never feel pain again. But, as beautiful as that is, it’s _so fucking boring_ after a couple thousand years of it, so I got us a job, if you want it. Lykon’s on board, so’s Quyhn.”

“What… what kind of job? We don’t want to be separated,” Nicky insisted as Joe wrapped his arm around his shoulders and held on possessively.

“Don’t worry, you won’t be. You’re together, literally forever and nothing will ever _, ever_ separate you, I promise. Plus, you can come back here whenever you want to. You just have to learn how to navigate this place. It’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I’ll teach you. You can visit your families too, but you have to be careful. Not everyone stays, some people choose to go back and live new lives. Some people never remember, finally able to escape their old lives and find eternal peace, like Booker.”

“Booker? Booker is here too?”

“He’s with his wife and children. I don’t want to change things for him until he’s ready. In his world right now, his third son’s just been born and he’s the happiest he’s ever been. We can look in on him, but for now, I say we leave him be.”

“What about Nile?” Joe asked.

“She’s still alive. She’s the oldest now, with a whole troupe of new ones to take care of. You wouldn’t recognize the world we left behind. But, we’ll see her again one day. So, the job?”

“Ok, boss.”

“When new souls cross over they usually manifest their afterlife, just like you guys did. It’s often the place and time they were happiest. For you guys it’s obviously Malta. However sometimes a soul has been in too much pain for too long and they’re messed up, confused, and they need a guide, someone to help them let go and start over. They need care and empathy. They need us. They need us to not let them fall into the dark place, the lonely place.”

“You mean Hell?” Nicky asked.

“Heaven or Hell, whatever you call them, is of your own making. If you’re a murderous psycho, they’ve got people here to take care of that, but for the wounded and the damaged who at their core are good, there are corners where they can get lost and forgotten. It’s our job to made sure no one ends up there, or if they’re there already, we get them out. No one gets left behind.”

“You promise, me and Nicky won’t get separated? You promise?”

Andy nodded. “I promise. They can’t split a soul in two and that’s what you are, two halves of a whole. You’re actually kind of a big deal around some parts, just wait. Are you in?”

“We can come back when we want to?” Nicky asked. Andy nodded. “In that case…”

“We’re in,” finished Joe, and Andy grinned. The old team was back together with new purpose.  
  
  
The End

**Author's Note:**

>  **Psychopomps** (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, _psychopompós_ , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife.


End file.
